Wow. It sure didn’t take long for the Romney campaign’s “talking points” to be leaked to the media. Methinks someone these desperately spinning talking points were given to isn’t much in favor of the way the campaign is trying to handle this.
As for Terr … he wants Obama to fly to Libya right now and beat up some of those murderous thugs! With his bare hands! And he needs to fly there with only a cape, no wussy aircraft! Just like in the Sgt. Rock comics! Cause that’s the only way he can look strong to the 'Merican public! Hoo rah!
Terr hasn’t said anything of the kind. What he wants is for the public to think Obama looks bad on this. That seems to be the beginning and the end of it.
First, the echo chamber jokes in this thread are fantastic and every single one of them has given me a chuckle.
Second, Obama has pushed back against Romney in a CBS News interview (bolding mine):
Romney tried to take control of the news cycle and it backfired on him big time. I’m not sure how anybody on the right can really spin this as anything but a disaster for Romney.
I hope this mans death never becomes a political issue. He was there assisting the Libyans to form a new government. I don’t think the small group that did this had any support from the majority of Libyans. They haven’t forgotten the assistance we gave taking down Gaddafi.
We do need to proceed carefully. Don’t let this tragedy deter the mission to help Libya’s emerging government. I’m hoping they’ll help us hunt done the group responsible for these murders.
Yeah I was just going to post this. It was a touch risky for Obama to go after Romney himself but he executed it perfectly striking just the right tone. And it definitely raises the stakes when Obama says it himself. It builds on a theme from his convention speech: presenting himself as a sober statesman in contrast to the Romney’s callowness and inexperience abroad. It doesn’t hurt that Romney and Ryan have the least foreign policy and national security experience of any ticket in several decades. Even in 1992, Al Gore had a reputation as a significant figure on nuclear proliferation and arms control.
Let’s set aside for a moment how objective effective Obama’s words are and consider the comparison to Romney, whatever Obama says, it’s certainly more presidential and statesmanlike than completely bungling your statement, as Romney has done. **Romney’s criticism was factually wrong. **He accused Obama of doing something that Obama objectively, unquestionably did not do; it is not a matter of opinion or political perspective. He fucked up. It’s that simple.
The correct thing for Romney to do would be to admit that he (or someone working for him) committed an embarassing gaffe, apologize, and move on, which would kill this story in a couple of days. But he isn’t, which simply makes him look like more of a fool. In fact, his factually incorrect statement is still on his website:
Yes, I would say that Romney has not looked particularly Presidential during this episode. Attacking a President during the midst of a passing foreign crisis on the basis of a lie has terrible optics.
Let’s remember the Cairo condemnation of the bigoted film came before the attacks in Libya. It even came before the attacks in Cairo. Foreign policy 101 states that you don’t need to respond instantly. Prudence dictates that you wait before you get the facts. And in this case the Romney campaign was mispresenting things that were already known.
Ok, I got your point. I’ll politely observe that you have no evidence – though evidence about public opinion would be very hard to generate in this case. You might be right – but I think I can establish at least that the evidence is mixed. Most people see “sending troops to protect the embassy” as doing something. When Libyan security forces fight the mob it is noticed. And there very well may be opportunities to strike at some of the perps. If so, that would be a good thing substantively. Right? Marking to market and forecasts
I am a little surprised at Romney’s incompetence. Something like this can crater campaigns. If his polls are up in three weeks time, I’ll have to re-assess my take – I don’t have public polling evidence of my contentions either.
Final prediction: I don’t expect Republican foreign policy experts to rally around Romney’s judgment during this episode. He is a loser and they have reputations to protect. Of course their electoral influence is minimal and their distancing won’t be noticed too much.
Those talking points don’t look like “flailing” to me at all. It doesn’t include anything to walk back his comments, or even tacitly admit that he may have spoken too soon. It looks to me like this is part of the plan.
In other words, what Romney said may have been a mistake, but I’m not convinced that it wasn’t said deliberately, and with the current strategy already in place.
Maybe it is the idea, which I have read elsewhere, that Romney needs to “go big, or go home”, i.e. he was losing the race before this, he needed something big to change the dynamic and so he is running with this, its his only chance.
THIS. It was Mitt’s Hail Mary to try and stop the bleed out of the conventions. But it was a huge mistake to attack when he said he wouldn’t on September 11. It’s just made things worse. Now, the next couple of days we’re going to see a swing from the economy where the two camps are tied, to foreign policy, and that’s Obama’s strength. Definitely not something the Republicans wanted to see happen.
